"You look like a creep," I said after getting out of the car with Alessio and Sophia to meet Angelo on some street the cops supposedly never go down. He had on a black hoody two sizes too big for him with the hood pulled way over his head. Was it even Angelo?

Yes, yes it was.

"And you look gorgeous. Are we done describing each other now?" He asked just as some random guy came up and started searching the babes and I.

"What are you doing?" I asked as his inspection got a little too uncomfortable.

"Checking for wires. The fucking cops can't be trusted," he answered.

"You think I wouldn't tell you if they strapped a wire to me? I'm a lot more scared of you guys than I am of the cops."

"Permission to check...under," the guy asked Angelo whilst motioning to my shirt.

"Absolutely not," Angelo paused momentarily, "I can do that myself," he switched his attention to Soph and Sio and said something to them in Italian. Oh how I wished I could understand. They both shook their heads quickly in response to whatever he had asked them with which he replied, "Good."

"They didn't put anything on mom either," Soph said, "She was with us the whole time."

"Positive?"

She nodded.

He turned to me again, "What questions did they ask? Never mind. Answer that later. We have to keep moving, can't stay in one place too long," he turned and started heading down an alley. I ushered Sophia and Alessio along like little ducks and we followed Angelo to an empty car.

We hardly drove anywhere without the presence of some other mafia member, so this was going to be...nice. Family time under frightening circumstances.

Angelo opened the back door on the drivers side and Sophia and Alessio ran to him. They both crawled into the backseat whereas I got into the passenger side and after closing their door, Angelo got behind the wheel and took his hood off.

"Really?" I asked after glancing into the rear view mirror. "No carseats?"

"I'm sorry that the mafia cars don't come with carseats installed?" He said it like it was a question, "I didn't have time to fight with those things, I was lucky enough to even be here to get you guys. You could have had to ride with Tony and we all know how much you love him."

"Oh, you're so funny."

"I know," he mumbled as he drove out of the alley and onto the main road. "Questions. What did they ask you?"

"Well, they know about how you sent me undercover three years ago," I said, "Same cop I worked with interviewed me for awhile. And then there was a Detective who had absolutely no common sense whatsoever."

"Meaning?"

"He laid out crime scene pictures in front of all of us, stuff he said you did. They were terrible, the worst shit you could ever imagine. You can't even find stuff like that on google! And he showed Sio and Phia like it was children's play, something he thought they should have seen already a million times."

Angelo's face went from blank to frowny, just like that.

"He said they were innocent people. All of them."

Now he looked confused, "Well then I did none of it, because I don't kill innocent people," he whispered as if that was gonna stop the best eavesdroppers the world has ever known from hearing him.

"That's what I thought."

"Anything else?"

Do I, or do I not tell him?

The answer is no. No, I do not tell him.

Wellllll....

Maybe.

"What?" Angelo asked, seeming legitimately worried. "What did you say?"

"It was either you or him, Angelo. I don't want to lose you," I knew I was about to be in some serious trouble and so I whipped up some tears. Sometimes they could get me out of a few ruts. "I had to tell them where to find either you or your dad or they wouldn't let us go."

He glanced over at me just as I was wiping a few tears away, reached over the small space between us and put his hand on my thigh, squeezing tightly and yet that was oddly reassuring, "Baby, they couldn't keep you. You didn't do anything. They had nothing to hold you on."

What?

So, I'm a fucking gullible moron is what you're saying? That's playing dirty. Yeah, trick the blonde girl.

"Did you have an actual answer? What did you tell them?"

"I told them exactly where they could find him," I remembered something, "The cop said that if I was lying, he'd come and find me and take me back in. Can he do that?"

"No, not unless you commit some crime between now and then, and that's only if he can even find you. You guys aren't necessarily roaming around as you please."

"I'm not shopping anymore. Someone else can do it," I said.

Angelo half smiled, "Ok," he removed his hand from my thigh and turned on the radio, eliminating the silence that had recently fell upon us.

It was on the country radio station.

Odd.

A song I knew only because Sophia somehow had heard it and sang it all the time was playing.

Soph immediately started singing, Alessio joining in on every other word, and to my utter amazement Angelo had also started singing super loudly, "CAN I GET A HALLELUJAH!" The three sang together, "Can I get an amen?" There was some mumbling in between and then the final, "Yeah I guess that's my church!"

I laughed at the sheer adorableness of the three of them singing together, "How?" I asked Angelo, "Are you the reason SoSo knows this song?"

"We were scrolling through the stations and this came on one day. You can't sit there and tell me that it's not catchy."

"Oh it is. It definitely is," I turned the radio off as something terrible came on, "Church though? We've never actually talked about that. Ever. Aren't Italians like catholic or something?"

"Only on Sundays," he answered boringly.

"Like you, or Italians in general?"

"Me, I suppose. I'm not devoted to it if that's what you're asking."

"Huh. Interesting."

I couldn't see it.

"What are you?" He asked.

"My dad was a Christian, he never put it on us though, and after he divorced my mom he just stopped going altogether. Violet wasn't majorly into it either."

He nodded. "Were you baptized?"

I shook my head, "Were you?"

"Mother's orders, yes. She thought it would save me from the mafia." Angelo's phone started vibrating. He glanced down very briefly before tossing the phone in my direction, "Who is it?"

I looked at the caller ID, "Well I don't really know," I looked at the name, a few people coming to mind but not one in particular, "It says Little Shit."

"Ah, Lorenzo. Decline it."

"What if its important?"

"Then he'll leave a voicemail."